paradiscroozin

I live in California and have the same issue. The first cruise we ever went on was to Catalina Island and Ensenada. I hated the dirty water and it didn't even feel like I was on vacation. I usually travel to places with turquoise waters so for me it sucked. I don't even like Los Cabos in Baja California! lol

So you can either try and save for a Caribbean place or Book an all inclusive Cancun land vacation where kids are free and alcohol is included or book a Hawaiian cruise, or come up to San Francisco and go to Alaska!

I was just on the Victory out of Miami and went to the Caribbean but we ended up driving to Disney world and spent time there too. The cost of airlines is horrible. It's practically the cost of the cruise!

Don't they have any kids sail free to Hawaii? That would be a great 2 weeks!

You can use your drink coupon to get a can of beer unopened and drink it later. My DH likes Guiness and we ususally each order one unopened and he enjoys them later. If it is around noon, I will order a fruity drink and head to the casino after.

Fantastic idea as well! I'm doing this next time too. We always spend money on buckets of beer. At least this will save one drink :)

"The eggs benedict were a little weird because of the stiff hollandaise sauce. Its not fresh and creamy, more like pre packaged stuff they just reheat. The egg was fine but the sauce on top was kind of gross."

 

That's why my wife always orders her with 'sauce on the side.' What you described is due to them sitting under the warming lamps.

I'm constantly learning something new! :) This will definitely be on my to do list in June! ;)

I have had early seating, late night and Your time dining.

All have been on Carnival and I learned that I like early seating the best. We usually have ports that end around 4 and that gives us enough time to board and get dressed and go straight to dinner.

The late seating for us made everything else late, we saw late shows, comedy shows and it even pushed the clubbing to a later time. I was usually so tired that I would stay about a half hour clubbing and then hit the sac for an early port time.

The anytime dining was a mess because it was really slow and we always seemed to come right after the singing and dancing. We also never got the same waiter and if you wanted the same one, you had to request him and wait.

So now I am sticking with early. It gives us a chance to see and do everything without being rushed. Lots of people like certain shows and will see the next showing. That isn't possible when we were booked for late seating. Even if we have a late port stay, we usually never stay out past 6 because I don't like walking back to the port in the dark. That may be funner in a large group but for first time visiting and staying only one day, I don't like doing it. I need to familiarize myself with a location.

Did you tell the porter and tip them? :)

 

The porters have special stickers that are very noticeable for the priority luggage. Depending on the port there also can be a special postered area where the priority bags get dropped off.

 

IF you just had your printed tags on, then is isn't surprising it wasn't seen.

Yup sure did! We printed out the luggage tags in color and had those bright orange stickers put on our luggage by the porters. Tipped them and they showed use the priority line but we still got our luggage around 5pm like everyone else. We had been on the ship since noon so it was a big hassle for us to keep going back and forth checking to see if it had been delivered. We had 4 bags and 3 got delivered first and then we still had to wait an extra hour for the last one. I still will continue to get fttf because of the room being ready and we don't have to hog lido chairs sitting by our carry on luggage. That right there is worth the $50, we always have carry on items.

We always get to the port early because it is the start of the vacation and you can enjoy the ship most of the day instead of starting at sail away. We get there early around 10:30 and are always on board within an hour. I purchased the fttf for this last cruise and loved that we had priority boarding and our room was ready. The only annoying thing was that our luggage was delivered along with everyone elses, so we had to keep going to our room to check and see because I hate it being left out in the hall. I thought we would have express delivery or even just placing our bags inside the room, what else is the point to putting the tags on our luggage.

We check out of the hotel and don't even eat breakfast because we just wait until we are on board. I don't want to spend money when I can usually eat at noon for free, since its already paid for ;)

Clearing your browser history and cache sometimes helps. My carnival website always messes up when I've looked at it too often trying to get the infamous fttf! :)

We leave the balcony door open every night but we prop the chair in the door. have never had a problem with banging noises and I enjoyed listening to the ocean all night long. We haven't done it during the day though cause we are hardly in our room

I liked it much better and am looking forward to it on our next 9 day cruise with 4 sea days. I ordered grits and they are made with milk instead of water like on the lido deck. The dh ordered steak and eggs, they have these super sweet cereal french toast things that look like a sugar overload but look fun. I loved the heuvos rancheros. The eggs benedict were a little weird because of the stiff hollandaise sauce. Its not fresh and creamy, more like pre packaged stuff they just reheat. The egg was fine but the sauce on top was kind of gross. You can still order fresh fruit and cheese plates. They have a nice bread basket with pastries. We had the pop overs but they were really eggy for me. I don't know if pop overs are supposed to taste like that. I thought the were bread but it tasted like an airy fried egg that looked like bread, so it threw me off a little.

You sit with strangers but can request a private table. I heard plenty of people being led to a table only to get there and loudly state "I don't like sitting with strangers and I want my own table" I think it's a little tacky and should be said when you first come in for brunch, personally.

I always wait till final payment just in case they run a special for OBC or the price goes down.

We were on the Victory in January and the kids club was open. I had to force my kids to do the sit down MDR with us, but they usually left halfway through because they had plans starting around 8:30 or so. My boys are 11 and 13 and they had a blast in the kids club. We only saw them for breakfast and dinner. I let them come back when the kids club close at 1 am.

Check your junk mail folder.

 

Steakhouse is $35pp.

Chef's Table is $75 pp.

Ended up doing a mail search using steakhouse and found the confirmation.

Thanks for the help from all who responded! :)

Are you sure you booked Chef's Table and not the Steakhouse? You can't choose when you go to CT, you are notified once you are onboard as to date and time. A letter will be delivered to your cabin. It usually only takes a day or two to receive confirmation.

Hmm.... I tried to book whatever specialty steak restaurant they have on the liberty. I wanted the one that was $35pp. I can't really confirm anything cause it was so long ago that I don't know what I booked. I never got an email. :(

Is there a way to confirm anything. Will a carnival rep see something on my booking?

I wanted to try and book the chefs table, so I went online to carnival and it had me fill out a form with the date, time, and people amount and then said it would send me an email.

This is my first time trying to book a table and I was wondering if this is the right way to book it. I never received an email and I submitted my info a month ago. I never paid upfront either. I just wanted to eat there on our first night and reserve early.

How do I know if my booking went through?

I think it's worth it. We were just on a cruise and spent alot on alcohol. I bring on 2 bottles of wine, I even pack a 750ml Bottle of alcohol, that never gets confiscated for some reason, and we still buy alcohol. We are big beer drinkers so we order the beer buckets throughout the day. It would have saved us big money getting the cheers program! You can even save a day by buying it the second day of the cruise. I knew we should have bought it for the cruise we just got off of in January but my DH said it would be a waste of money.... guess how much our bar bill was!!! :rolleyes:

We head up to the Lido for our last buffet breakfast of this trip:(

 

These pictures of Cassidy kill me every time I see them. She looks just like some diva who's partied way too hard.

 

 

OMG...... these pics are ADORABLE!!!!! Too funny! I was on the Victory in January and agree with you completely! We had anytime dining and the first night we sat with menus for a while, then apps for a while...It was the worst service ever! We ended up leaving without dessert after 2 1/2 hours. I just couldn't wait any longer. We also got the racial, as well as gay slurs with the comedy shows and walked out of nightly shows (we went to 2 and they were bad, so we never went back)

It's also nice that you hang out around the ship with your family. We went with a group of 10 ppl and me and dh were in one room and my 3 kids 20dd- 13ds-11ds were in a room across the hall. We only saw them on port days cause the younger ones stayed in the kids club till it closed at 1am. We would randomly see my 2 boys when we were on deck eating or in passing. They never wanted to hang out with us! lol

I've always booked directly with Carnival. I got the offer but my traveling companion didn't. I am the main one always booking though. I've been on only 3 cruises so far and nothing past 5 days so now we will do a longer cruise

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It is NOT from Carnival, read it again.

It's from Carnival.... I got mine and live in California. I just got back from a cuise 2 weeks ago on Carnival. Now I'm gonna try a big, new, ship! I can get the 16 day Hawaii for $430 TOTAL but I can't take that much time off at once.

They should have things figured out by now....the dining choice has been around for a while. Hopefully all the kinks have been worked out. I really hope we aren't waiting an hour to eat.

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We will be on the Victory on Thursday with a group of 10.... I will let you know how it goes. Hopefully it won't be too bad

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My family will be cruising next week and we have 4 cabins booked. I bought the last 2 available and everyone will be able to store their luggage in both rooms when they first get on board. We also have someone leaving on an early flight so they will take advantage of early disembarking. It was well worth the price for us!

There was an item at the Blue Iguana for breakfast that was great, but I don't know what it was. It was not the burrito or the huevos, it was already made up. it was on a fried flat shell about 4" or 5", I think it was some sort of meat and beans. I put salsa and sour cream and it was awesome. Not my typical breakfast. I tried to ask a couple of times what it was, but could never understand the reply. If anyone knows what it was called, I would love to know.

Hmmmm........ I'm wondering if it was a pupusa, a picture would definitely help though.

Great review so far! I will be boarding the Victory next week :) I'm interested in all the pictures, especially the spa prices and menus but I can't see any images on page 3

:(

I can see most on the first page and some of the pictures you just posted.........

I'm not sure what the issue is, but from what I have seen it looks great! :) Keep it coming please.

It was Carnival Spirit a couple of months back.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/10/carnival-spirit-cruise-passengers-overboard_n_3251753.html